Traffic and road congestion in
Colombo and its suburbs has developed into a serious issue over
the past decade impacting investment and town development alike.
Passenger transportation is likely to continue to be an acute
problem primarily in the city, due to difficulties with highway
and road network expansion.
As a solution local authorities are exploring the possibility
of setting up an effective Mass Rapid Transit (rail) System (MRTS)
to cater to the needs of growing passenger numbers in Colombo
metropolitan area.
MRTS , a rapid transits system has proven to be an effective
solution to ease congestion in cities across Europe and Asia, in
addition to being cost effective. Having observed its advantages
in regional economic expansion and city development the
Government is looking to implement a similar network in the
Colombo Metropolitan area.
A group of international companies led by NEB Infrastructure
Pvt ltd of India with Siemens AG of Germany, OPUS international
Malaysia and UTI bank from India, have expressed their
willingness to the Sri Lankan Government to undertake the
pre-feasibility study for the proposed MRTS project.
The BOI has signed a letter of Intent with the NEB
infrastructure Pvt Ltd with the other companies that would
submit pre-feasibility report, on which consensus will be
reached to prepare a detailed Project Report for the network.
The government will make available to the Group existing
study reports and materials relating to the subject. The
feasibility study will involve the study of route alignment,
estimation of transport demand and distribution, projected
traffic loads and cost estimates.
The Group headed by the NEB Infrastructure of Bangalore has
been involved in a number of large scale infrastructure
development projects in India. Its Chairman and Managing
Director S. Nagaraj said: " We are involved in metro projects in
the city of Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Ahmedabad and we
feel the metro rail will be the solution as well as a necessity
for all growing urban cities with more than 2 million
population."
Siemens AG is a German multinational company and a global
player in the provision of rail-based mass transit solution. It
provides everything from single components to turnkey rail
systems, and is a market leader for systems engineering and
integration.
The funding of project is led by UTI Bank of India which is
ranked 15th among the top 300 Asian Banks engaged in syndicating
funds for key infrastructure projects.
"A project of this nature will ease a lot of congestion faced
by the city of Colombo and contribute towards making it an
important hub in South Asia," a BOI spokesman said. - LA
